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The Theology of Eros

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The Theology of Eros THE THEOLOGY OF EROS Vladimir Moss © Vladimir Moss, 2014. All Rights Reserved. 1 This book is dedicated to my godson James and his bride Katarina, on the occasion of their wedding in the Orthodox Church. 2 FOREWORD 5 INTRODUCTION 7 The Problem Stated 7 Pagan Philosophies of Love 9 The “Realistic” and “Idealistic” Views of Eros 18 1. EROS IN THE BEGINNING 20 Introduction: The Limitations of our Knowledge 20 Male and Female 22 Dominion through Love 26 The Creation of Eve 38 Neither Male nor Female 44 The Image of God and Sexuality 49 Angelic and Sexual Modes of Procreation 54 Impure Means to a Pure End? 57 Natural and Unnatural Modes of Procreation 63 The Bonds of the Family 69 2. EROS IN THE FALL 73 Marriage in the Fall 73 The Garments of Skin 78 Innocent and Guilty Passion 89 Original Sin 94 Sexual Sin 99 Sexual Shame 102 Sinful Thoughts 105 Fornication and Adultery 107 Contraception and Abortion 112 The Lust of Demons 115 Perversion 120 Homosexuality 123 3. EROS IN CHRIST 132 The Annunciation and the Nativity 132 “Genesis” and “Gennisis” 138 The Marriage at Cana 141 The Wedding of the Lamb 146 The Two Mysteries 151 4. MARRIAGE AND MONASTICISM 160 The Definition of Marriage 160 The Permanence of Marriage 162 Civil and Ecclesiastical Marriage 164 Remarriage and Divorce 174 Mixed Marriages 178 The Purposes of Marriage 183 Marriage and Monasticism 187 Lourié’s Manichaean Thesis 196 Stars differing in glory 204 5. EROS AND HUMAN NATURE 207 The Nature of Eros 207 The “Sublimation” of Eros 210 3 Sublimation and “Falling in Love” 218 Sublimation and Marriage 231 The Resurrection of the Body 235 Eros and Agape 241 The Cult of Romantic Passion 249 Eros: Human and Divine 254 CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY 257 APPENDIX 1: THE MARRIAGE IN CANA OF GALILEE 263 APPENDIX 2: “FLEE FORNICATION” 267 APPENDIX 3. DIALOGUE BETWEEN AN ORTHODOX AND A MANICHAEAN ON MARRIAGE 277 1. Love and Lust 277 2. Adam and Eve 288 3. Fall and Resurrection 293 4. Marriage and Monasticism 297 4 FOREWORD This book owes its origin to a recent debate in the Russian Orthodox theological literature and internet web-forums on the nature of eros and the status of married Christians and sexual love within marriage.1 This debate shows no sign of dying out, and I have felt the need to present what I have learned from it in a more systematic form in English and for English-speaking readers. The result is the present work, which attempts to expound the nature of eros, marriage and monasticism from the perspective of the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church. My main debt, of course, is to the Holy Fathers, especially the Greek Fathers from the fourth to the fourteenth century, from St. John Chrysostom to St. Gregory Palamas. I have also made use of Russian Fathers, such as St. Demetrius of Rostov, St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, St. Seraphim of Sarov, St. Ignaty Brianchaninov, St. Theophan the Recluse, St. John of Kronstadt, Archbishop Theophan of Poltava and New Hieromartyr Gregory (Lebedev). Also cited have been some more recent Orthodox philosophers and theologians such as Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich, Archpriest Lev Lebedev, Hieromonk Seraphim Rose, Vladimir Soloviev, S.L. Frank, S.V. Troitsky, Vladimir Lossky, I.A. Ilyin, John Romanides, Panagiotis Trembelas, Panagiotis Nellas, Georgios Mantzaridis, Anestis Keselopoulos and Philip Sherrard. Among non-Orthodox authors who have helped me I should like to mention the contemporary English philosopher Roger Scruton, as well as the great bard, William Shakespeare, whose struggles with the concept of sexual love first aroused my interest in the subject… I should point out that the fact that I quote from an author does not necessarily imply that I agree with all his teachings. In addition, I wish to thank my friend, Anton Ter-Grigorian, for his stimulating discussion of the issues raised in this book. After writing the first draft of this book, I read the following words by Fr. Seraphim Rose: “All of this [the true nature of sexuality, and of human nature before the fall, from a patristic point of view] should one day be written out and printed, with abundant illustrations from the Holy Fathers and Lives of the Saints – together with the whole question of sexuality – abortion, natural and unnatural sins, pornography, homosexuality, etc. With Scriptural and patristic sources, this could be done carefully and without offensiveness, but clearly…”2 1 See Hieromonk Gregory Lourié, Prizvanie Avraama (The Calling of Abraham), St. Petersburg, 2000; Protopriest Michael Makeev, V. Moss, A. Ter-Grigorian, I. Grigoriev, Supruzhestvo, Zakon i Blagodat’ (Marriage, the Law and Grace), Moscow, 2001. 2 Rose, in Hieromonk Damascene (Christensen), Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works, Platina, Ca.: St. Herman of Alaska Press, 2003, p. 804. 5 This is precisely what I have tried to do in this book. It is up to the reader to judge the extent to which I have succeeded or failed. Although I have tried to remain as closely as possible to the teachings of the Orthodox Church, it goes without saying that I, and I alone, am responsible for any errors that may have crept into this book, for which I ask forgiveness. Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, our God, have mercy on us! Amen. July 25 / August 7, 2014. St. Anna, mother of the Mother of God. East House, Beech Hill, Mayford, Woking, England. 6 INTRODUCTION I want to purify our wedding celebrations: to restore marriage to its due nobility and to silence those heretics who call it evil. St. John Chrysostom, Homily 12 on Colossians. The Problem Stated Is there such a thing as sexual love – that is, a love that is sexual, but which is none the less love for being sexual, and which is not devalued or defiled by its sexuality? To this question there are broadly three kinds of answer:- 1. No. There is no such thing as sexual love because what goes under that name is in essence not love, but sex, a purely biological phenomenon not different fundamentally from the courtship and mating of animals. 2. No. There is such a thing as sexuality, and there is such a thing as love, and they can coexist; but only in the way that an ass’s head can fit onto a human body – the two things are of a different nature and serve different purposes that inevitably contend against each other to the detriment, invariably, of love. 3. Yes. There is a specific kind of love, called sexual love, which in origin and essence and aim cannot be divided into the separate components of “sex” and “love”, but which in the conditions of the fall and the loss of grace has undergone a fissure that sets its originally harmoniously united elements against each other, resulting in the fallen passion of lust. The first answer is that of the naturalist pagan or atheist. It leads to a permissive morality and the more or less rapid destruction of civilized society. The second answer is that of the Manichaean, and it leads to a rigorist morality – and the undermining of the institution of marriage and the family. The third answer is that of the Orthodox Christian, and it leads to the harmonious concord of the Orthodox Christian family in the Orthodox Church of Christ. The first two answers are clearly related, in spite of the atheist and liberal character of the one and the theist and rigorist character of the other. Both are pessimistic about what I have called sexual love, but which they would identify as such only in inverted commas. However, the pessimism of the naturalist remains such only so long as he retains what he must consider to be his illusions about the existence of a non-animalian kind of “sexual love”. Once he has shed these, he is free to do “what comes naturally”, with no guilt or shame – or real joy. The pessimism of the Manichaean, on the other 7 hand, is real and tragic. He knows that love does exist, but is forced to the conclusion that it cannot coexist with sexuality while remaining love, which means that sexuality must be forcibly expelled from his life in all its forms if the ideal of love is to be preserved. For the naturalist sexuality is neither good nor evil, just a neutral fact of life, like eating and drinking: for the Manichaean it is evil. For the Orthodox Christian, however, sexual love – as opposed to lust - must be good, since it was created in the beginning by God, Who is all-good, even if it has fallen from its original status and is frequently perverted to evil uses: in this he is opposed in principle to the position of the Manichaean. On the other hand, he believes that it is a characteristically human, and not animalian, phenomenon, and therefore subject to the categories of moral evaluation at all times: in this he is opposed in principle to the naturalist. This book is devoted to a justification of this position. 8 Pagan Philosophies of Love A few words need to be said by way of introduction on the pagan cultural and philosophical milieu in which the Christian doctrine of eros was developed in the early centuries of the Christian era. We need say little about naturalism, because it is the “philosophy” of all secular people in all ages, the natural justification of the fallen impulses of unredeemed human nature. The position of the naturalist is the position adopted, consciously or unconsciously, by the great majority of people of a secular cast of mind, and also by very many people who would call themselves believers.
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